Lots of Sewing and New (old!) Dolls

After long hours of painstakingly hand-stitching the binding, my daughter finally finished her quilt.  ALL BY HERSELF.  I'm so proud of her.  The binding is made up of leftover strips from the fabrics she used in the quilt, and the backing is a cozy, soft flannel.  She did simple machine quilting with a decorative stitch along the seam lines.  She also made herself a new pillowcase, and the butterfly fabric ties in perfectly with the colors of her comforter and quilt.  She leaves for church camp tomorrow and is taking the quilt and pillow with her.  I know she feels a sense of pride with what she has accomplished, and is eager to show it off to her friends.  I'm looking forward to seeing what she sews next!

I sewed this little top for myself a couple of weeks ago, using a cotton gauze from my stash..  I drafted the pattern myself, since I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for.  The upper bodice is a simple peasant top with elastic in the neckline and sleeves, and the bottom portion is a slight, A-line.  It has an inset band under the bust line, which I covered with a piece of antique eyelet lace.  I also added vintage, crochet lace along the bottom.  Narrow ties cinch in the sides and tie at the back.  I love this top...it is light and summery and easy to wear.  I might even make myself another.



Today I traveled with some of my doll club friends up to a doll show a couple of hours from my home.  It is a great show, and I'm always tempted with all the wonderful antiques.  This time was no different.  I ended up with this little sweetie, a Kestner 211, otherwise known as "Sammy". He has a bisque head and a composition body.  His wig is not original, and I plan on replacing it as soon as I find a suitable, mohair wig.  He also needs new clothes.  I hope to make him a baby gown with tucks and lace, and maybe a matching bonnet, just like babies used to be dressed a hundred years ago.

Just look at that adorable face!  Can you imagine that this was once created as a play thing for children?  It makes me sad when I think of what is available for little girls to play with today.  Most dolls found in toy departments leave much to be desired, in my opinion.  Cheap materials, cartoonish faces, and dolls that represent things I'd rather not expose my young daughters to fill the shelves.  It's depressing, really.  I'm so glad that I collect dolls and have a wonderful selection of beautiful babies and little girls for my daughter to enjoy mothering.

This is "Dimples", by Horsman.  She was made in the late 1920's.  Her head and limbs are composition, and her body is cloth.  She needs a new dress and a big, frilly bonnet, also.

Dimples has blue, tin eyes that sleep, and wonderful facial coloring.

Here's a doll with a face that only a mother could love!  And I'm that mother.  I spotted her across a crowded room, and I knew I had to have her.  She is unusual in the fact that she has celluloid limbs, a hard-stuffed cloth body, and what appears to be a papier-mache head.  The seller thought her head was made of celluloid also, but I'm not so sure.   She has her original wig and sleeping, glass eyes.  Two, bottom teeth give her a kind of funny look, but I don't care--I love her!  There's just something about her that really spoke to me.  I know that not everybody (or even most people!) would appreciate a doll like this, but there was just something about her that I couldn't ignore.

I purchased this doll from a doll friend last week.  She is a newer doll, by the Swiss doll manufacturer Heidi Ott.  Isn't she pretty?  She is the same size as the popular American Girl dolls, and has vinyl limbs, head, and a cloth body.

Her face is hand painted, and her wig is human hair.  I call her "Tasha".

This is a Corolle doll named "Lily-Rose".  I picked her up at Goodwill recently, and sewed her a cute, new dress.  She will be listed on Ebay soon, since I need to build up my Paypal account again after this weekend's spending spree at the doll show!

Lily-Rose is approximately 17" tall with a vinyl head and limbs, and an interior armature which allows her to hold a pose in her legs.  Her hair is long, soft and brushable.  This doll is very sweet--I keep finding her in my daughter's bed!

This is another Corolle doll, and she is heading to Ebay, also..  She is small, maybe about 8" long, with sleep eyes.  When I found her at Goodwill she was only wearing her original, footed pants, so I decided to make her a cute, little dress to wear over the top.  The blue fabric has the cutest, pink bunnies sprinkled all over it...I love it!

I always keep my eyes open at thrift stores for potential dolls to fix up and sell.  But lots of times they look so cute in their new outfits, it's hard for me to let them go! 

I hope to start a new quilt this week.  It's been a long time since I made one, and my daughter has inspired me with hers.  Son #4 has been wanting me to make him his own quilt for quite some time, and I have the perfect cowboy print fabric in my stash.  I also have plans for a new, summer dress for myself, and oh...I almost forgot...my youngest is going to be a flower girl in her cousin's wedding this August, and I have been commissioned to make both her dress, and the one for the other flower girl.  I already have the fabric--a pretty cotton in robin's egg blue with a slight shimmer--and the bride wants it to be a simple sundress.  Easy enough.  But since I can't leave things TOO simple, I will probably add embroidery to the bodice.  Sitting next to my sewing machine right now is a library book with a pattern for a cute purse which I've been itching to make.  And then there's the pile of half-finished doll clothes which I'd like to list on Ebay.  Anybody else ever feel like there are never enough hours in the day to get all their crafting done?!?  Hopefully, I'll be back soon with some new projects!











My Daughter Quilts!

Isn't the dream of every mother who sews to eventually have a daughter follow in her footsteps?  Well, I finally got my wish!  This week, my 15 year old worked off and on for three days to piece the front of this beautiful quilt, with NO HELP at all from me.  I'm so proud.  When she announced last week that she wanted to make a quilt that she saw in a book, I took her out right away to my favorite fabric stores and let her pick out the fabrics.  Yes, I have plenty of fabric in my stash, but I really wanted this to be HER quilt, and her tastes in colors and patterns run a bit different from mine.  So we bought the majority of what she needed.  However, she did find a few prints in my hoard that worked into her color scheme.

Here's the book which features the quilt she did on the front cover.  We found it at our local library.

And here's a close up of the squares.  Didn't she do a great job in matching up all the corners?  I'm so impressed.  This quilt isn't finished yet--it still needs batting and a backing.  We will head out again tomorrow for a cozy flannel for the back.  I always back all the quilts I make with flannel...they are just so soft and warm.  She plans on "stitching in the ditch" to secure the layers.  I will be sure to post more pictures when it is completely finished.  This is one proud mama!



Sewing for Myself

I used to sew a lot more for myself in the past than I do currently.  Because, let's face it...after birthing and nursing eight children, my body just isn't quite where I want it to be.  It's so much more fun to sew for a three-year old--they don't have any figure flaws and everything looks so cute on them!  Sewing for myself, however, is a completely different story.  I love it when something I make for myself actually turns out, but there's so much work involved.  First, I always make a muslin.  ALWAYS.  I have learned the hard way that my measurements aren't the standard for what's shown on the back of pattern envelopes.  But even though making a muslin is an extra step, it saves time and frustration in the long run.  I would love to own a dress form someday...it would certainly be much easier to fit a garment for myself with one.   But for now I just make do with trying it on over and over, contorting myself at weird angles so that I can view myself in a too small mirror.  But it works!

I've had this pattern in my collection for several years.  It's actually a "missus" size pattern, so it only goes up to a size 14.  But I could tell by reading the measurements that it would work for me.  I ended up making a combination of sizes 12 and 14, and I altered the pattern so that the skirts would be all the same length (instead of shorter in the front and longer in the back, as shown).  I also added an inch to the bodice length, and slightly raised the neckline both in front and the back.

I had all the fabrics I needed already in my stash!  The violets on a white background is a cotton/poly voile which I purchased at Daisy Kingdom at least ten years ago.  I had used some of it way back then to make pinafores for my girls, but I had a lot left over which I never quite knew what to do with.  Because it is sheer, I needed to line it with something.  The bodice and sleeves are lined with white linen, and the underskirt is a fancy, white cotton with rows of white on white embroidery and tiny tucks.

I decided to "fancy up" the bodice by adding a panel of laces.  These are all pieces of vintage/antique lace insertion which I've been hoarding.  I simply cut pieces of lace the size I wanted, temporarily glue-basted them down onto the bodice, and then stitched.  Very easy, and the effect (though hard to see in the picture) is dainty and old-fashioned.

I cut the overskirt shorter than the underskirt, and I also added a wide strip of vintage lace along the hem of the overskirt.  Many dresses during the Titanic era had skirts with several, filmy layers, and I just love that look.

Here's a back view.  Please ignore my hair which needed to be brushed, and had gotten kind of unruly while being caught a few moments earlier out in the rain.  On the original pattern, the back bodice is designed to scoop much lower, but I raised it about two inches.  This dress was fairly easy to make once I figured out the muslin.  Each skirt, however, is made up of seven panels, and I french-seamed each seam, so that I means I sewed 14 long seams two times each, for a total of 28 passes on the sewing machine.  Whew!  I was glad when that part was over.  The back closes with an invisible zipper.

I wore this dress today to a ladies tea at our church.  I received compliments on it which is always encouraging.  Even my 15 year old, who generally wouldn't be caught dead in the clothes I like, wants me to make her a knee-length dress from this pattern.  I'd like to make another one for myself, too, also a bit shorter.  Hmmm, I'll have to go check my stash again and see if I have any more yardage that would be suitable.  All in all, I'm very happy with how this turned out, and am anxious to try it again.



Birthdays and Storms

Thunder rumbled, lightening flashed, and the rain came down in sheets as our family gathered together last night and today to celebrate two birthdays.  Son #3 turned the big "18" yesterday, and little brother celebrated his 6th today.

We put Landon's candles on one corner of the cake, and Jackson's on the other.  We don't always celebrate their birthdays on the same today, but it just worked out easier that way this year.

Seven of my eight children together...that makes me so happy!  The days are getting fewer and farther between when that happens anymore.   Everybody seems to be growing up so fast. Two of my "chickies" have already flown the nest, and the third is getting close.

Late this afternoon, another storm moved in.  We had one yesterday, too, with lots of lightening, thunder, and rain.  But today's storm also brought hail the size of marbles.  Once the lightening stopped, I gave the kids the go-ahead to explore our flooded street.

It was over a foot deep in some places!

Sophie lasted about one minute before she started crying about her feet hurting.  With all that hail, the water was freezing.

The kids rode their bikes through the temporary lake with no problem, but every car that came down our street turned around and went the other way once they saw all that standing water!

And here's a short clip of our birthday boy, capping off his special day by floating down our street.  What six-year-old could ask for more?

My First Zippered Bag

I was putting together another care package today for my son in Afghanistan when I remembered that he had requested for me to send him some simple sewing supplies.  Often times, a rip needs to be mended or a button needs to be sewed back on and he doesn't want to wait the couple of weeks it will take for the army's tailor to get around to it.  As I was stuffing the scissors, thread and needles I had purchased into a Ziploc bag, I suddenly thought how nice it would all look in a little zippered pouch.  So I decided to make one.

I used scraps of fabric that I had leftover from a previous sewing project...the fabric is actually from an old pair of my son's army-issued pants.  The pouch is made from two, simple rectangles (an outside piece and a lining), with some interfacing for stiffness and a zippered opening.  I'm really pleased with how this turned out!  So simple, yet really rewarding.  And it's the first time I ever put a zipper into anything besides a dress!  I forgot to take measurements, but I think it ended up being about 7" wide by 6" high--the perfect size for a small pair of scissors, two spools of thread, a pack of needles, and some extra buttons and safety pins.  I have been wanting to make myself a new purse using more scraps of this fabric for a long time...now that I see how nicely this turned out, I have lots of motivation to give it a try.  And when my older girls saw it, they both requested larger bags in which to store their toiletries when we go on vacation.  Hmmm...I have leftover horse prints for my horse-lovin' cowgirl, and there are tons of pretty, floral fabrics that would be great for my girlie-girl...the possibilities are endless!

This picture has really nothing at all to do with this post.  Except that it's cute.  And every post should have a little cuteness, right?  So this is Delilah, the cat, who lately thinks that MY bed is her bed.  Lucky for her, she's cute and oh-so-fluffy, or she would have been kicked off long ago!

The Easter Dress That Wasn't

I bought this fabric last year, with the full intention of using it to make an Easter dress for Sophie.  Well,  that didn't happen.

But I didn't stress about it--I just figured I'd use it for this year's Easter dress.  Wrong again.

Somehow, time had slipped away from me, and so had two Easters.

As I was organizing my fabric bins last week, I came across the neatly folded fabric.  "I'm supposed to be an Easter dress" it seemed to say.   But Easter was last month.  Surely I could just save it for next Easter?

But then I realized that if I waited one more year, there definitely wouldn't be enough fabric to make a dress for an almost 4 year old.  I had only bought a little over a yard of the pink bunny print because at the time, Sophia was probably half the size she is now.  I also bought about the same amount of the coordinating brown print.  If I was ever going to make a dress out of these fabrics, the time was NOW.  Besides, bunnies are cute.  They don't have to be just for Easter, right?

I decided on a simple sundress.  Of course, once I got started, I couldn't leave it very "simple".    I love frilly, fancy, and froofy!  I started with a basic bodice pattern, and then altered it to create a sweetheart neckline.  Because I didn't have enough of the bunny fabric for a full skirt, I also added side panels of the coordinating brown print. 

The side panels needed a "little something", so I decided to add strips of ruffles.  I also added an underskirt with another ruffle along the bottom.  This gives the skirt lots of body.

All in all, I'm very happy with how this turned out.  The colors are some of my favorites--soft, peachy pink, warm brown. and cream.  It has great "twirl-a-bility" and lots of visual interest.  The only thing I would change is the depth of the armholes.  They ended up being a tad bit too large.  Oh well.  Live and learn.  I did, however, use everything from my "stash".  I did not have to go out and purchase anything to complete this project, not even the buttons!  I just happened to find three, matching buttons in the right shade of pink in my button jar.  It was meant to be, I guess!

We are finally having enough warm weather so that Sophie can wear this dress without a sweater.  Now that is something to be happy about!

A Birthday, a Suit, and a Walk

Last Monday was my birthday.  Thank goodness my family didn't put 46 candles on my cake.  Instead, there were only three--one for the past, one for the present, and one for the future.  Bless their hearts.

My grandfather was born in 1901.  Here he is with his family in Germany, probably in the mid 1940's. (My father is the sullen looking boy standing behind his little sister).  I only met my grandfather a handful of times before he died.  I remember that he smoked cigars, was rather short and round, and that he had an "office" in his home right off the front entry.  This "office" was actually his sewing room.  My grandfather was a tailor.

He made clothes for others, as well as his own family.  He had to sew uniforms for Nazi officers during WWII.  He also made the wool suit my father is wearing in his wedding photo.  My father still has this suit...and it still fits!  Well, everything except the sleeve length.  He jokes that his arms must have grown over the years, because the sleeves are now a bit too short.  So he asked me if I could lengthen them.

My grandfather was a master at his craft.  I marveled at how well-made the suit was.  Welted pockets, button plackets on the sleeves, and a fully lined interior.  Much of it was sewn by hand.  This suit was made back in the day when pride was taken in workmanship.  Buttons were sewn on so that they wouldn't ever come off. 

Because my grandfather had left generous seam allowances, I was able to let out the sleeve length about 1 1/4".  Here is my father, in his newly altered suit.  He was quite pleased with the results, and I am just so amazed that he can still wear it.  It just goes to show that true quality and workmanship never go out of style.  I also felt very honored to have worked on something that my grandfather had made with his very own hands over 50 years ago.  I wonder what he would have been thinking while he made that suit, had he known his future grand-daughter would someday also add her own stitches to his creation?

Visiting my parent's home is always a fun excursion for us.  Since my mother passed away almost three years ago, it holds a lot of bittersweet memories.  I found myself getting misty-eyed when I reached for some spices in the kitchen cabinet, and found my mother's unmistakable handwriting on them.  The kids love visiting their "Opa"  because he lives out on five acres in the country, surrounded by beautiful woods.  And since there was a break in the rain, we decided to go out and enjoy a walk.  My brother and his son, Isaac, were also visiting.

Checking out the pond that my father made some years ago...the kids found lots of salamanders, much to their delight!

Because my father's property borders timber land, there are lots of beautiful trails to hike.



I just love those curls...is it wrong to covet my daughter's hair?!?

Coming back down the mountain...



Sophie and her Opa

We had a wonderful day.